1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to media players, and in particular to capturing and sharing media content among users.
2. Background of the Invention
Television and other video content, are increasingly being delivered to consumers in new ways. For example, the digital video recorder is an example of a device that leverages the flexibility of digital media and its storage to provide a new level of convenience relating to television viewing as well as recording. Also, television programming and a myriad of other multimedia are increasingly finding a home on new devices. For example, television programming is no longer found solely on the television. Through computer networks, as well as other delivery mechanisms, television and other media content are increasingly becoming available on other devices, such as personal computers, mobile phones, PDAs, and other portable computing devices. The broader availability of media on these devices, as well as the inherent flexibility of digital media also provides a host of new ways for consumers to share content with friends, family, as well as the community at large.
Sharing video and other content with communities of others is becoming increasingly popular. Web sites which host content uploaded by others for sharing, such as YouTube, are also becoming quite popular. However, the percentage of individuals that actually contribute content clips and other media to such sites is miniscule. One reason for this is that the process of clip contribution is cumbersome and time consuming. Platforms upon which consumers watch video, and the sources of such video, such as televisions, DVRs, personal computers, and mobile phones, do not provide for a sufficiently integrated and easy to use solution for content viewing, capture, edit, and upload.
For example, a user that is watching a television show via a DVR (such as TiVo) connected their living room television may see something that catches his interest. Furthermore, he may have a desire to share what he just saw with a friend or a community of individuals. If so, he must engage in a multistep process, which likely involves multiple applications using multiple devices to accomplish the task of capture, edit, and upload. First, the user must connect the DVR to another device, such as a PC, in order to capture in a format for upload. This likely involves connecting the DVR via analog cables to a PC with a video capture card. The user would use an application such as Windows Media Encoder to digitize the content to create compressed digital file. Once that file is created, the user can then visit a community web site, which may have its own tools for allowing the consumer to upload the video. As part of this process, the video may need to be transcoded into a format compatible with the Web site, which would add additional time to the process. This process is both user unfriendly and inefficient.
If the consumer does not have a DVR which allows him to revisit a clip for later formatting, editing, and upload, an additional problem is encountered. That is, the user will need to anticipate that an upcoming video segment will be of interest and worth recording and sharing. A user must start recording the media steam in advance. For example, in order to record the latest news on TV, the user can learn the scheduled broadcasting time of the news from TV Guide and start recording the TV broadcasting before that time. Therefore, if the user notices something interesting in the media stream that he or she did not expect, it is already too late for the user to record the interesting content.
Thus, from the above, there is a need for an improved system and process for users to record media content and share the recorded media content with other users.